This View of Life 

I guess there's no questioning that i love space science. The manned missions are particularly stimulating because we are "boldly going"...it's like Science Fiction brought to realization. But...i have always hoped that the outdated shuttle system would soon be replaced with newer and more competent spacecraft.
   This mission, Discovery STS133, will be one of the last shuttle missions before these spaceships are retired. Since the USA presently has no replacement for them we will likely be hitching a ride in Russian Soyuz capsules (a technological step backwards in my opinion).
   Although private American companies are developing new solutions to getting astronauts into Earth orbit, it seems it will be a while before we have another functional "space plane". So, while i'm glad to see these old and often unreliable spacecraft retire, i will miss the sight and excitement of the shuttle missions....of seeing a ship blast off into "The Final Frontier" and fly back down to land on a runway.
Here's hoping the next "Enterprise" isn't too far off in our future.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/iotd.html

Sunday, 6pm eastern time.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson hosts. The subjects range from astrophysics to exobiology.
Recent episodes are available too...in case you didn't make it to the live show.

http://startalkradio.net/

The American Museum of Natural History is one of my favourite places to be. There's a seemingly endless supply of wonders to delight the eye and the mind!

http://www.amnh.org/?gclid=CI6m4M3J5KYCFYHb4AodtEJo1Q